Survivor XM605

XM605 - Castle Air Museum, Castle AFB, Atwater, California, USA

Vulcan B.2 XM605 at the Castle Air Museum, 28th July 2002; Steve Steele

Vulcans, as part of the NATO nuclear deterrent, regularly visited the USA - lone ranger missions, bombing competitions and squadron deployments. Lucky old Americans! Lucky indeed because a number of Vulcans are now preserved in the US - first of all here's XM605 preserved at the Castle Air Museum. Delivered there in 1981, the RAF were back the next year to remove the refuelling probe (desperately needed during the Falklands war) but brought it back again afterwards. XM605 is in generally good condition and lacks only a brake chute, but there is some corrosion as you'd expect from an aircraft stored outside - and the cockpit has suffered a fair amount of water damage. An ex-Vulcan ground crew member was helping out with XM605 and had got as far as correcting the aircraft's incorrect nose-low stance and powering up some of the electrical system but unfortunately the museum won't let him work on it any more! See his XM605 home page for full details and lots of pictures. The current crew chief on the aircraft now has a XM605 website too.